Alzheimer's Association buys Wichita Festivals building — again

WICHITA — With a lease for new office space, Wichita Festivals is a step closer to its goal of one day being "right front and center" with downtown property. That is freeing the group's current space for the Alzheimer’s Association to buy it – again.

WICHITA — With a lease for new office space, Wichita Festivals is a step closer to its goal of one day being "right front and center" with downtown property. That is freeing the group's current space for the Alzheimer’s Association to buy it – again.

When the Alzheimer’s Association bought its current building at 347 S. Laura in 1998, it purchased it from Wichita Festivals.

In fact, when the association recently took its sign down to prepare it for its new space, the former Wichita Festivals sign became visible again.

"We're trying to figure out what the right long-term home is," says president and CEO Mary Beth Jarvis.

She says the group wants to continue to collaborate with people who are working on developing the core of downtown, and the closer the organization is physically, "the more we're able to be relevant and helpful."

The new office, where Jarvis expects to be for a couple of years, will be where the city's career development office used to be.

"So we're 14 blocks closer to downtown," Jarvis says.

The Alzheimer's Association first began talking to Wichita Festivals about its space a couple of years ago.

"They had had kind of a standing offer on the building," Jarvis says. "We knew it wasn't our best long-term home."